If for example you have an applique father christmas, should that be saved under applique or christmas? And a cute animal design that could be used for a child - should that go under animals or children? And what about the website it came from? Can you see my confussion!! Any ideas?? Hope you all have a wonderful weekend. God bless.

This is NOV1 and local Viking dealer has design 5 software-allows u to do sorting, catalog,and change formats and more even resize for $300.00. I don't have it but someone might check out local dealers.

I had the same problem, here's what I now do, and would be open to anyone else's ideas, but this has helped a lot. Animals seemed to be out of control so I made a folder named Animals and in it are sub folders with the types of animals, ie., cats, dogs, sheep, etc. Applique designs in an applique folder, a sub folder might be christmas, etc. You could also make a sub folder in Christmas named applique or if I can't decide where I might look for it later, I put it in two places.

I name the design - father christmas ced - the initials after the name indicate whose design it is.

As with the other Cuties, I use a database but within the it I have main folders with subfolders. Some with many subfolders. Its tricky when there is different descriptions within the design. So I think of what I want to catalog it under. Then I set aside the design for a while and think about where is that file located. The first location I think of is where I put the design. Folders are easy to make and really can help with sorting and organizing. Hope this idea helps you get your ideas brewing

I have a folder "alfabet" and i put all my alpha's in there, I give the subfolders the name of the alpha and the site where it came from. I have an "applique"
folder and subfolders in it like flowers and petals" animals, etc etc. In animals I made subfolders for ducks, dogs, cats etc.

It is a great and important question. You are right to think about that now, I have been wrong not to do that from the beginning, and now, I have not hours, not weeks, but month of work to organize, and I have so many designs free and bought that I do not know how to begin that work...

I'm sure everyone has a different way. I have folders for everything. I have folders for animals names Animals-Cats, Animals-Dogs, Animals-Farm, Animals-Jungle, Christmas-Santas, Christmas-Snowmen, Christmas Floral-Greenery, Bugs, Babies, Fish and Sealife, Beach, Wedding, Vintage, Heirloom, etc., then I have an Applique folder for any design that is appliqued (since I don't do a lot of it), but this way if you know it's an applique design you're looking for, it will be in that folder. Floral designs could be broken down by flower type. When I save designs, I usually have to change the name to something descriptive and then end it with the website name I got it from. I.e., Cute Angel with Hearts-cuteembr. I do abbreviate the website names to shorten. But when all is said and done, if you're like me and don't have the money to spend on a program, use whatever method will enable you to find a design without searching for an hour.

1 comment

by muflotex 22 Oct 2010

I prefer folders too, depending on what projects you work on most, sit down (15 min with timer ;-)) and plan the folders to your needs - on paper, so you can see what you are doing and delete with one pencil stroke, what you do not like on second thought. Then when you think you got a plan, like in a library, go to work on your computer. Mostly it will have to fit your search motivation (projects)

I, too, have Ann the Gran's Catalog Xpress. Buzz Tools makes one very similar (although Ann The Gran's has a resizer in it and Buzz does not). I am not sure the current prices of them right now. It allows you to organize all kinds of ways and you can put things in multiple folders too (like Christmas and Applique). I take care of the source by storing the files on my computer in folders by the website name (and some sites I have split with a free folder and a paid folder). YOu can see the path of the file in the Ann the Gran software so you know where it came from.

There is a program from Ann the Gran, Catalogue express you can try it for free for a month. You can catalogue all in there and open designs and even change format and see them all easily. However if you can not afford the price for instance you could make up many files and make one for animals and in there many sub files for dogs-cats etc etc. You could make a file for appliquet and ofcourse a christmas - easter etc file. However it is than handy if you do that, to have some sort of viewing facility to easily see the designs.

My best folder says "Bev Found It". after all the diffent filing methods ,Catergories,Internet sites,and others I still spend time finding the one I want hence this folder.
If in doubt of where to file one that could go in several places just make a copy in each.
We all need P.A.s to help with this tremendous job.
Happy Filing/Hunting :)
From Bev